A blog about two cheetah cubs and their puppy companions

Beautiful faces with amazing adaptations

From the tips of their noses to the tips of the tails, cheetahs are built for speed. Just take a look at their beautiful faces …

Cheetahs have high-set, large, forward-facing eyes over a short muzzle. This gives cheetahs binocular vision and excellent eyesight – cheetahs can see detail to a distance of 5 km, while humans with binoculars would have difficulty seeing the same detail.

With eyes like these, you can probably guess that cheetahs hunt primarily by sight, stalking within around 50 feet or so of their prey before springing into the chase.

Called a malar stripe, the black tear mark that runs beneath each eye helps to keep the glare of the sun out of the cheetah’s eyes (much like when football or baseball players put blacking under their eyes). This is an especially important adaptation as cheetahs largely are daytime hunters; unlike other cats, cheetahs do not have good night vision.

Cheetahs may rely most heavily on sight, but they also have excellent hearing. Their small, round ears can pick up the slightest sound and cheetahs can hear higher frequencies than humans. A black patch of soft fur behind each ear is believed to be an adaptation to resemble a pair of eyes.